FPGA Based Videogame System

[gulps]

I think it's on his to-do list. This would be awesome if true.

 

Kevtris is more efficient working 14 hours at day with other projects than the Analogue nt mini's restock...

 

Just waiting... and waiting...

[atmn]

 

Kevtris is more efficient working 14 hours at day with other projects than the Analogue nt mini's restock...

 

Just waiting... and waiting...

Are there any news on the restock?

 

My guess, additional colors..

[atmn]

Kevtris,

Would it be possible to make a ntsc and a pal firmware separate to THE hi def nes to free resources? And be able to add 5x?

 

Default fw could be a combined with a option to use ntsc or pal only.

[kevtris]

Kevtris,

Would it be possible to make a ntsc and a pal firmware separate to THE hi def nes to free resources? And be able to add 5x?

 

Default fw could be a combined with a option to use ntsc or pal only.

no, the project is done and I am not going to touch it again. The FPGA is 99% full, the code that runs it has 30 some free bytes. It's not getting touched again except for maybe an FDS bugfix on the audio some time. I'm swamped so that probably won't happen for a long time either. Sorry 'bout that. I'm back to working 12 hour days between my day job and paid work now.

 

Separating PAL/NTSC won't gain anything since the only difference is in some counters. The chip simply does not have enough blockram to do 5x height mode. I consider the hi def a mature product now that is not going to get any new features or updates, other than bug fixes if any more are found other than the FDS one that will eventually get fixed, but it's kind of low priority.

[atmn]

no, the project is done and I am not going to touch it again. The FPGA is 99% full, the code that runs it has 30 some free bytes. It's not getting touched again except for maybe an FDS bugfix on the audio some time. I'm swamped so that probably won't happen for a long time either. Sorry 'bout that. I'm back to working 12 hour days between my day job and paid work now.

 

Separating PAL/NTSC won't gain anything since the only difference is in some counters. The chip simply does not have enough blockram to do 5x height mode. I consider the hi def a mature product now that is not going to get any new features or updates, other than bug fixes if any more are found other than the FDS one that will eventually get fixed, but it's kind of low priority.

OK! Thanks for the info. Dont work too much. You have made some awesome products. Got an NT mini, a AV famicom with HI-def NES and a real FDS. Anything thats needed to be sorted out just shout.

[mr_me]

 

Yeah unfortunately I didn't have time to release the last two cores yet. They require more processing to get them onto the mini and right now I'm back to working 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week on paid stuff so it will be awhile. When I do get a break I don't really feel like touching anything else.

...

Is there something about the Intellivision fpga that porting it to the nt mini requires more processing/work. is it the 16bit memory, 10bit rom cartridges, 16 direction controllers?

 

Also, there is a slight difference in the Intellivision ay-3-8914 and the ay-3-8910 sound chips that affects the sound in some games. It is explained here. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228141-lto-flash-intellivision-flash-cartridge-information/?p=3596200

[kevtris]

Is there something about the Intellivision fpga that porting it to the nt mini requires more processing/work. is it the 16bit memory, 10bit rom cartridges, 16 direction controllers?

 

Also, there is a slight difference in the Intellivision ay-3-8914 and the ay-3-8910 sound chips that affects the sound in some games. It is explained here. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228141-lto-flash-intellivision-flash-cartridge-information/?p=3596200

no, I just need like 3-4 days to do it. I don't have that kind of time right now. The bit width makes no difference. the SDRAM on there is 16 bits, so doing 16 bits is not a problem. The system is 100% done and works fine. The problem is I have to "port" the video part over to HDMI. That's what sucks and what takes so long. All of those cores were designed for RGB at 15KHz output, so converting the video to use the scalers and stuff, then adding all the back end code to load the BIOSes and make up menus for settings and stuff is what ends up being a time sink.

 

Then something like 7800 would come along and totally screw everything up since it did more than 256 pixels/scanline (320 in the case of 7800) which meant I had to do a lot more work to wrangle it into working, because the clock networks had to be redone to compensate, then the menu system's graphic generator had to be redone, then the composite encoder had to be redone, and so on. It's just a lot of stuff that has to be done to get a port working. One thing has to change which causes a cascade effect on everything else. I was really hampered by a lack of PLLs. The chip has 4 but I could only use 2 because I only have 1 clock pin used. The other clock pin to feed the other two PLLs is clear on the other side of the chip and I didn't want to try and risk routing the clock there and screw up signal integrity doing so. It probably would've been OK but I didn't want to risk it without being able to do testing.

 

Near the end there it seemed every system had to be a special snowflake and required me totally retooling the video scaling and hardware to compensate. Having to support all those video outputs really, really sucked and I guess 7800 might still have some problems on one of the analog outputs. maybe. Not surprising seeing how insane the hacks were to get it to even work at all on there.

 

In the end I ended up having to write 5 different scalers to handle all of the systems. The 7800 has it's own special scaler due to all the clock differences between it and everything else.

 

I put a couple months of 6-7 hours a day of unpaid work on porting all the other cores over to the nt mini. I wasn't paid for that- I did it on my own free will since I wanted to have them all ported and usable. Now that I'm working on a project that pays, I don't have time to do all that free work any more, unfortunately. I was probably going to convert those cores anyways for a Z3K and figured I should port them sooner rather than later. Now that they are ported and modernized it will make transferring them to anything else a lot simpler. The last two cores will be ported eventually but it is going to be next year before that happens at the going rate.

[RampantOctopus]

Kevtris, thank you for all you've done. The NT Mini rocks. Can't wait to see a Z3K when the time comes.

[+Random Terrain]

I don't care if it takes an extra year or two. I'm waiting for the Core 3000 or Core Infinity or CoreNado or ZitPopper 4000 or whatever it's going to be called. I'll buy one for me and one for my sister.

[Wolf_]

I don't care if it takes an extra year or two. I'm waiting for the Core 3000 or Core Infinity or CoreNado or ZitPopper 4000 or whatever it's going to be called. I'll buy one for me and one for my sister.

You need moar cores if you want to cope with the massive power that blast processing requires.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I put a couple months of 6-7 hours a day of unpaid work on porting all the other cores over to the nt mini. I wasn't paid for that- I did it on my own free will since I wanted to have them all ported and usable. Now that I'm working on a project that pays, I don't have time to do all that free work any more, unfortunately.

Kevtris, it has been suggested several times to set up a Patreon account. If you do, your unpaid work suddenly becomes paid work. I'd donate a fiver a month to the cause.

[Schizophretard]

I don't care if it takes an extra year or two. I'm waiting for the Core 3000 or Core Infinity or CoreNado or ZitPopper 4000 or whatever it's going to be called. I'll buy one for me and one for my sister.

 

And I don't care about genealogy, my gender, or facts because I know deep down in the very core of my being that I am most definitely your sister.

[Bakeriffic]

My black NT mini finally arrived today and I installed the jailbroken firmware. Thank you for your amazing work on this device, Kevtris! I had been using a RetroUSB AVS but upgraded to the NT mini for the 5x height/6x width option and the bonus system cores. I'm still getting the hang of the hotkeys. It took me a little while to figure out that I needed to press "start" on the file menu to access the core options menu within the various cores but it was smooth sailing after that. The only feature that I really miss from the AVS is the pre-programmed game genie codes for when I feel like being a lazy cheater. I'll be keeping an eye out for cartridge/controller adapters and I second the Patreon idea to support Kevtris's work on projects like updates/extras for the NT mini and the Zimba 3000.

[Bakeriffic]

Is there a guide for using the CopyNES feature that's built into the NT Mini? I tried to use it for the first time yesterday but was unsure of what to do when prompted to select a plugin. It appears that I might need to research the type of chip that the cart contains in order to perform the operation but I'm a total noob at this and would appreciate some guidance.

 

Also, I've read some reports of people having difficulty getting the NT Mini to read their carts but I'm happy to say that I have had more success with this than others. I clean all of my carts by taking them apart and polishing the pins using a standard pink eraser and then buffing/cleaning with a dry cloth. The mini even read one cart on the first try that I couldn't get to work at all in my stock NES (which has a new 72-pin connector) or the AVS.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Loving your Avatar Bakeriffic. I have the pixel Zelda and both Marios.

[saftle]

I registered just to say that I would love to see a kevtris patreon campaign. A few emulator devs are opening it up as well, with no strings attached, and no commitments. Basically just for people that want to throw money at the devs for their great work.

[atmn]

I registered just to say that I would love to see a kevtris patreon campaign. A few emulator devs are opening it up as well, with no strings attached, and no commitments. Basically just for people that want to throw money at the devs for their great work.

 

That would be the only patreon I would supporting atm.

 

I'm a developer and know how many hours unpaid you have put into something before someone will be able to pay for the work and knowledge.

 

I do not by any means compare myself, Im a software guy basicly dont know anything about HW engeneering. Just saying Kevtris deserves some cashflow.

Edited May 26, 2017 by atmn

[Bakeriffic]

Is there a guide for using the CopyNES feature that's built into the NT Mini? I tried to use it for the first time yesterday but was unsure of what to do when prompted to select a plugin. It appears that I might need to research the type of chip that the cart contains in order to perform the operation but I'm a total noob at this and would appreciate some guidance.

I've managed to figure this out myself for the most part but I've run into a snag with an unlicensed game: Krazy Kreatures. I was able to find the mapper info online (AVE_Nina-3/AVE_Nina-6) via http://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/Krazy_Kreatures. However, when I select the plugin named "AVE NINA03 and NINA06.BIN" in the "3rd Party" folder when using Copynes Mini and try to run the dump, I get a read timeout error. I've successfully dumped nearly 50 carts so far as I've gone through my collection in alphabetical order but this is the first one that I've had real trouble with. Any support that Kevtris or others could provide would be appreciated.

 

Incidentally, while backing up my other carts I discovered that my copy of Gyromite is one of those that contains a Famicom to NES pin adapter (see HERE for more info). I removed the Famicom game circuit board from the adapter and plugged it directly into the Famicom port on my NT Mini. It loaded just fine and I dumped the game directly from that board instead of going through the adapter. Very cool! I don't own any Famicom carts so that was my first chance to test out that feature on my NT Mini.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think the NES an Famicom ports are parallel wired. You should never plug both carts in simultaneously! AVS has an ingenious blocking mechanism such that the Famicom and NES slots are right angled preventing dual insertion as each cart type blocks the other port.

[kevtris]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think the NES an Famicom ports are parallel wired. You should never plug both carts in simultaneously! AVS has an ingenious blocking mechanism such that the Famicom and NES slots are right angled preventing dual insertion as each cart type blocks the other port.

that's correct. I don't think it'd really hurt anything, but I still wouldn't do it anyways.

[Sneakyturtleegg]

Does anybody know the default settings on the NT Mini for the difficulty switches (A or B) for the Atari 2600 core? I am looking to play some games in the High Score Club here on Atariage. This week I want to try Fast Food. Both the left and right difficulty switches need to be set to the "B" position. I have read the readme file, but it was unclear to me.

[NE146]

Using the included 8bit do controller I believe the shoulder buttons are mapped to difficulty switches. I don't know what it starts up by default though.. a 2 player game of space invaders might give an easy clue

[killersquirel]

I had a happy accident happen. Five or six years ago I purchased a vga to component cable from monoprice. I bought it to try and use my XRGB3 to connect to my HDTV. It didn't work and I just put the cable aside. I tried the cable with the Mini NT and it works perfectly to use on my CRT TV. Now I will try using the light gun and 3D glasses when I get the chance.

[KRiSX]

bit the bullet and ordered an NT Mini... looking forward to checking this stuff out

[gulps]

bit the bullet and ordered an NT Mini... looking forward to checking this stuff out

 

Me too.

 

We just have to wait until September (or more )